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New booster vaccine on its way to region

ELKINS — Health officials are hoping that a new vaccine booster which arrived in West Virginia on Monday will be the answer against the ongoing battle with the Omicron strains of COVID-19.

Since last Thanksgiving, the Omicron variant has been the predominant strain of those infected with the virus in the United States. And since then, multiple Omicron sub variants of the strain have arrived, including BA.5, which is the most contagious one to date.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 88 percent of the cases right now in the U.S. are that of the Omicron variant, particularly the more contagious BA.5. The CDC also says the new vaccine booster will help restore protection from previous boosts and target variants that are more transmissible and immune-evading.

“We know that the Omicron variants are more contagious than the original variety that came out, even though that variety made people sicker and we had more more hospitalizations and deaths,” Bonnie Woodrum, the Randolph-Elkins Health Department’s infectious disease specialist, told The Inter-Mountain Tuesday. “The new vaccine is supposed to have a high protection rate against the strains of Omicron.”

West Virginia Inter-Agency Task Force Director Jim Hoyer announced during a state coronavirus briefing on Monday that shipments of the vaccine booster had made its way to the Mountain State.

Woodrum said the Randolph-Elkins Health Department has received all of the supplies for the vaccine booster and is expecting doses to be delivered at any time.

“We expect to have those as early as today or the next day,” she said. “We already have all the other supplies we need for the booster, we are just waiting on the vaccine itself, which could come at any minute.”

Woodrum said the Health Department will notify the public once the vaccine booster arrived. She said pharmacies and clinics will also be distributing doses.

The Department of Health and Human Resources reports there are currently 2,694 active COVID-19 cases in West Virginia. The database shows Randolph County with 37 active cases, which Woodrum says is lower than the actual number.

“As everyone knows, we are not getting all the reports like we used to because of home testing, and because people with mild symptoms are not reporting at all,” Woodrum said. “In the last 10 days we’ve had 220 cases come in, so it’s a safe estimate to say that we currently have over 100 active cases in the county right now.”

The DHHR database announced seven new deaths in the state, including a 96-year old male from Randolph County. To date, there have been 7,301 deaths in West Virginia contributed to the coronavirus.

According to the DHHR, there are currently 59 active cases in Upshur County, 28 in Barbour County and eight in Tucker County. The database shows just one active case in Pocahontas County.

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